After a magical week in the Galapagos Islands, I expected
an add-on to nearby Peru to be a letdown.But Machu Picchu had also been on my must-see list for years.And so we went.

Machu Picchu is “one of the new seven wonders of
the world.”An Inca city from the 15th
century, abandoned by its inhabitants in the 16th century because of
the Spanish conquests, it was in such an unlikely and hard to reach spot high
in the Andes and so hidden by an overgrowth of vegetation that it was not fully
re-discovered until 1911.

No list of “places to see before you die” would
exclude Machu Picchu.

Since we were coming from sea level to 8000 ft, we
spent a few days in the (lower) Sacred Valley of the Incas to adjust to the
altitude. This is an agriculturally-rich area with farming both in the valley
and on terraces built high into the mountains.There, the fields are still plowed by oxen.It was the rainy season so everything was
lush and the green and iron-red mountains, part of the Andes, are “new” enough
to present impressive ragged edges.

The village of Urumbamba and the nearby Inca fortress
at Ollantaytamba were a good introduction to the savvy and strength of the
Incas.From Ollantaytamba, it is an hour-and- a half-train ride through
the valley to Aguas Calientes followed by a twenty minute bus ride on a narrow climbing
road from Aguas Calientes to the Machu Picchu site.

Words or photos cannot adequately capture Machu
Picchu.It is a city of 80 acres that once had a
population of several thousand people.The buildings left by the Incas are built of huge granite boulders fit
together with precision to make temples and living quarters.We spent hours climbing up trails and among
the terraces used to grow crops and through the remains of these
buildings.The mist moved in and out
among the peaks; the view changing from moment to moment.

The Incas of Machu Picchu worshipped the sun and moon
and nature.Their stories have been
mostly lost, but the power of their spirit is still there.